Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

The folks at the Political Science Department at Trinity are very capable, you know. Not alone do they study for exams and prepare election surveys but they have pulled time from somewhere to create pickyourparty.ie. The premise is simple, they ask you a few questions and they measure your response against a series of elite [...]

From RTE, its neck and neck. It could go either way and, once again, Betie’s payments didn’t matter a jot outside the Dublin 4 beltway and areas of the internet (including here).
Results:
FF 36% (+2)
FG: 28% (-3)
Labour: 13% (+3)
Sinn Fein: 10% -
Green: 5% (-1)
PD: 2% (-1)
Independent/SP: 6%

It is interesting to see how the last few weeks of campaigning play out in local polls. With attaching health warnings comes today’s snapshot into Louth for the Drogheda Indo. It is a four seater again this time out. At the head of the pack is Foreign Affairs Minster Dermot Ahern on 22% (down 4% [...]

With The Irish Examiner giving us our first poll of the actual campaign today, and with polling day just less than three weeks away, I felt it was as good a time as any to compile a poll specifically for Irish Election, one that may be unconventional but just as relevant and reliable as anything [...]

Yippee a poll. Yet another thing to distract from issues. From Rte.
Fianna Fáil are at 37%, down two points since September
- Fine Gael are at 26%, up two
- Labour are at 13%, up three
- The Progressive Democrats are 2%, down four
- The Greens are at 6%, unchanged
- Sinn Féin are at 8%, down one
- Independents [...]

FF 34 (-3)
FG 31 (+5)
Lab 10 (-1)
Greens 6 (-2)
PD 3 (+2)
SF 10 (+1)
Ind 6 (-2)
The poll was conducted over last Monday and Tuesday from a representative sample of 1,000 voters at 100 sampling points across the country and in particular after the parties had all published the key economic aspects of their manifestos. Tomorrow’s Irish [...]

This is getting beyond ridiculous. Am I the only one who thinks Comrade Bertski is making a complete mockery of the rules by stalling on naming a date?
Yesterday, bold as brass, he was able to announce that he’s going to wait until the Dáil gets through a lengthy programme of bill-passing before he chooses [...]

The Examiner carries news of another RedC local poll. This time in Roscommon/South Leitrim has very interesting news for trends and seats. First to trends, Fine Gael is suggested to have a larger first preference vote than Fianna Fail in the constituency 41% to 37%. This chimes with local polls elsewhere which suggest possible downturns [...]

One that matters, the Red C Poll has some interesting trends emerging as FF are now consistently coming back into the chasing pack. Granted their lead over Fine Gael is still big but nowhere near last Christmas and with a leap you hear the backbenchers gnashing nails and teeth.
Business Post/Red C Poll:
Fianna Fail: 35% (-1)
Fine [...]

Great stuff, another local poll. Cork North Central is under the microscope for the Echo. It is a four-seater this year (down from five). Was a 3-1-1 but one incumbent FF is retiring so the incumbency is 2-1-1 for the four seater. The poll predicts that Fianna Fail are likely to have a pretty major [...]

The Kingdom ran a poll yesterday suggesting that Kerry South could return a boost for the opposition. John O Donoghue leads the way, with Breda Moynihan Cronin coming in second. The good news for the opposition though it that it seems they won’t take seats off each other and return an extra seat to the [...]

Poll released today in the Waterford News and Star by Red C for the constituency. There is considerable good news for Fine Gael, although a possible headache for Enda Kenny, John Deasy tops the poll on 20% of the first preference and Fine Gael’s overall first preference share is 30%. This despite a sitting Minister [...]

Another one slipping below today’s radar is the Radio na Gaeltachta Poll on Galway West. See below the fold for results and bottom of post for link to .xls of results.

Tomorrow’s Business Post/Red C Poll.
Fianna Fail 36 % (-2)
Fine Gael 23% (+1)
Labour 12% (-2)
Sinn Fein 10% (+3)
Greens 8% (–)
PDs 3% (-1)
Independents 8% (+1)

Update: We gotta button - thanks Frank!!

As we know at this stage, the Taoiseach doesn’t really like Friday for voting. That is why we started the petition to get a weekend election going. However it seems that Saturday’s are quite popular with the government before now:

I keep hearing that the polls are still pointing at another Fianna Fail government in the future. Except it looks like no one is willing to but their money where their mouths are, here Irish Politics
What do you think, are the pollsters all talk? What do you bet?